resurrection

[magike]

Subject: Resurrection
Date: 20. 8. 125
Time: 02:42
By: 473 - 1645

I'd like to talk about resurrection: experiences of it, theories surrounding it, whether pertaining to this world or otherwise.

Comments

[magike]

You never said why it's unique.

[vestments]

You didn't ask.

I was brought back by the Egyptian god of the moon. He doesn't do that for just anyone.

[magike]

Perhaps not, but you wouldn't be the only person ever to be resurrected by a god.

[vestments]

I didn't say I was.

But we could go round in circles all day. Not everyone's the avatar of a god, let alone the one that brought me back. That was my point.

Did you want a conversation, or have you got everything you wanted from just that?

[magike]

Why did they bring you back?

[vestments]

He needed an avatar. I was dying. He asked, I said yes. That's all there was to it. Life in return for debt, duty, and service.

[magike]

An avatar to do what?

It's a heavy price for life.

[vestments]

Protect the travelers of the night.

( also known as VENGEANCE, but details. )

Everyone and everything has a cost.

[magike]

Not everything has such a vague cost.

[vestments]

I lived a life of violence.
He made me an offer to continue that.

I understood the terms and conditions.

( he absolutely did not, but he will never admit that. )

[magike]

Gods never make fair choices.

[vestments]

Whose definition of fairness? What god do you expect to play by man's rules?

[magike]

I don't. But there's always more to their expectations.

[vestments]

Sure.

But being brought back from the dead isn't light work. Payment's not going to meet most definitions of fun or else everyone would be doing it. And fair's just a matter of how much you're willing to give up to get what you want.

Someone always comes out a winner.

So, were you dead, or are you courting information about what happens if you die here?

[magike]

I've died and been resurrected before through my own spell. I've known others to be resurrected in other means.

[vestments]

( that's not quite answering the question, but okay. )

From what I hear, magic has a cost too.

[magike]

Not mine.

( she will deny it forever. she might have resurrected herself but her body had still been in the condition it had been before she'd died: healing was a bitch )

A less skilled witch wouldn't be able to properly execute the spell. I've seen zombies in the place of a true resurrection before.

[vestments]

( hmm. "a less skilled—". )

What'd it cost to get you there?

( it turns out that being brought back by khonshu isn't the get-out-of-jail-free card marc had always imagined it to be; it still has a cost, and his inability to be precious about his own life has likely not played in his favour.

still.

hard to break the habit of a lifetime and all that. )

Apparently that's what's waiting for me. It's not resurrections in perpetuity.

[magike]

The cost to be resurrected? Being killed.

[vestments]

No. To get you to the point where you were able to do the spell.

You said your magic doesn't have a cost. I don't believe you.

And dying doesn't count. That's someone else's beef with you.

[magike]

I'm a powerful witch and I've studied magic for a long time.

Certain spells have a cost, curses typically. Resurrection isn't a curse. As long as you have everything you need for the spell and the power to cast it, it can be done.

[vestments]

( "resurrection isn't a curse", depends on your perspective...
(or: local man full of regrets over his choices.) )

Does your magic work here?

[magike]

It does. Why?

[vestments]

Curiosity.

( pause. eventually— )

I don't have powers, so I don't know how they're affected by whatever this place really is.

[magike]

I suppose that would depend on the power.